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Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

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Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#571

Post by andirk »

ss108 wrote: post #532
andirk wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are completely addicted to Amazon. Some of my friends and neighbors get things from them literally daily without thinking twice about where to shop. I do not get the allure of cheap Chinese product on my doorstep in 2 days nor do I understand getting overly charged fine dining on my doorstep upside down and cold. But everyone else is addicted to those services. Sadly, I don't see Amazon losing any steam, but I…

It's not any more "cheap Chinese product" than anywhere else. CoolerMaster keyboard is made where it's made whether one buys from Amazon or Best Buy. Personally I get stuff from Amazon almost daily because I don't want to go to, e.g., Walgreens to buy toothpaste and dishwasher detergent. For a large number of items, there is no benefit to inspecting the item prior to purchase. Going to store for such items would be a…

Brand names are probably identical regardless of middleman. Seems a difference between not wanting to go to the store. So much funny shit happens at Walgreens.

Tip your delivery person sometimes.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#572

Post by andirk »

themitigating wrote: post #547
andirk wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that disturbing? There are a lot of "non-profit" "charities" that are corrupt.

"I doubt the average customer looks much into if what they do with the money even aligns with their own vision of a better world" Where does this say anything about corrupt charities.

Says "looks much into if what they do with the money". Corruption means doing bad things with the money, which is what most people don't look much into. Sentences.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#573

Post by [deleted] »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #559
bsuvc wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromebooks seem to be the standard nowadays. At least that is what are issued by the school around here (Midwest US). My first thought is that if someone can't afford a computer, wouldn't they prefer to have a "lesser" computer and have the remaining difference in cash or necessities? Maybe the donors are a little out of touch with what their recipients need. I'm sure they are appreciative of the computer, but there…

We took the novel approach of having the instructors choose the platform they thought would enable them to deliver the best program. Then we sought to see if we could meet their request, and we were able to. Donors had no influence over that decision. The computers cost about 40% of the overall budget. We had enough money to fulfill other aspects of the PTO’s program, PE, Art, Music, Dance, (the ‘A’ in STEAM that LAU…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#574

Post by gnicholas »

dealforager wrote: post #34
sokoloff wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be worse than that. I’m cookied into some affiliate or other for Amazon essentially all the time. I always assumed Smile was mostly a way for Amazon to get me to direct that to a charity instead of a stale affiliate link.

Smile and affiliate commissions are separate. So in your example both the charity and the stale affiliate link would receive a cut that is independent of the other. Source: I run an affiliate site and my links always direct to Smile, and I keep getting commissions.

Is it possible that by linking to smile, your amount is reduced by the smile amount, or that it operates differently when the affiliate link happens first and the smile insertion happens second?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#575

Post by andirk »

AdamH12113 wrote: post #560
andirk wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get that Amazon's retail profit margins are terrible Why do you think that? I get some 2-8% of the purchase amount via their Amazon Affiliate Program. Furthermore, their "Amazon Choice" or whatever it's called where they suggest 1 version of the product over the rest is often made by Amazon itself because they saw that someone else was profiting nicely off of it so they get in between and squash the competition.…

I googled "Amazon profit margin" and found several sources saying their operating profit margin is a low single-digit percentage at best.

That's so nice of them to give me 8% on electronic purchases then. According to "Amazon profit margin", that means they're losing money because of me.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#576

Post by Breza »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #352

I think this is a little short-sighted on Amazon's part. PTA/PTOs were onboarding loyal Amazon customers via Amazon Smile because of the fundraising. In the last PTO I was involved with, Smile accounted for about 2% of our donations ($3000/year = ~$150K in household spending from our school). To put that in perspective, about 90% of our $150K annual fund raise was direct donations from parents and local businesses, A…

It's shortsighted for other reasons as well. On Android, you had to have notifications enabled in order to buy through Amazon Smile. Being able to deliver ads via push notification is a useful way to increase sales. I guess they weren't making enough money from it to cover the costs to charity?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#578

Post by rideontime »

Alupis wrote: post #470
rideontime wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did Amazon get the money from?

You purchased goods from Amazon - and they promised to send some portion of their profit to some organization of your choosing. It's firmly Amazon's money at that point. You bought something from them... their choice on how to spend it. They were generous enough to have this program at all, really. I would recommend finding a decent charity organization that speaks to you and what is important to you - and donate dir…

I already do that. It was nice to see a portion of money that I'd be spending on other things also going to charity. Now I've got less reason to give that money to Amazon instead of another retailer.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#579

Post by WesternWind »

luckylion wrote: post #489
WesternWind wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One was an international charity, and tiny sums definitely matter. 12 cents buys a de-worming pill that helps keep kids free of intestinal parasites for 6 months. $35 bucks plants 20 trees in a village. Their main focus was a brick and wire based stove that prevented unnecessary deaths and blindness by reducing smoke, built locally from local materials for pennies. Big charities tend to focus on where they can have t…

Oh sure, you can do good things with small amounts, I meant it more like: if you're a small charity where every penny counts, you probably didn't get thousands of dollars from Amazon because you didn't have the reach (and arguably, the time dealing with amazon may have been spent better doing something else). And if you're a big name, you're not relying on a few tens of thousands from Amazon because you're taking in…

There's no time spent dealing with Amazon as a charity, they just cut a check to the charity for however much it is.

The hiring freeze/layoffs, as best I can tell, has been driven by activist hedge funds like TCI and Elliot Managmenet encouraging companies to make big cuts for a short term increase in the bottom line, not by any major actual economic issues for most tech companies.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#580

Post by amscanne »

pnt12 wrote: post #248
amscanne wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure that the frontline workers for those organizations are earnest and genuine in their effort to help, but it’s also undoubtedly true that there’s a lot of money to be made (and it’s not really in the interest of those making the money to see the problem solved). If you search the term “homeless industrial complex”, you’ll see lots of hot takes on this. I’m not really endorsing any specific perspective, but I s…

"there's money to be made" is one of the weakest arguments there is. Capitalism makes it all about money! There's little doing without it. This opinion can lead to some really ignorant statements (which I've heard before) : - Full time jobs at charities? Money laundering for sure, they should reject their salary and starve. - Investing in clean energy? A conspiracy, some people make money there. - Recycling? People a…

"There's money to be made" isn't an argument. The world is not a binary, just because I am implying that some part of an industry is cronyism and grift, doesn't mean that I am asserting that it is 100% the case. It would be equally dumb to assert that it is 0%.
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